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Ezekiel 3, 4

3He said to me, O mortal, eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.
2So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.
3He said to me, Mortal, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it. Then I ate it; and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey.

4 He said to me: Mortal, go to the house of Israel and speak my very words to them.
5For you are not sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language, but to the house of Israel
6not to many peoples of obscure speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.
7But the house of Israel will not listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me; because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.
8See, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads.
9Like the hardest stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not fear them or be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.
10He said to me: Mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears;
11then go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them. Say to them, Thus says the Lord God; whether they hear or refuse to hear.

Ezekiel at the River Chebar

12 Then the spirit lifted me up, and as the glory of the Lord rose* from its place, I heard behind me the sound of loud rumbling;
13it was the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against one another, and the sound of the wheels beside them, that sounded like a loud rumbling.
14The spirit lifted me up and bore me away; I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, the hand of the Lord being strong upon me.
15I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who lived by the river Chebar.* And I sat there among them, stunned, for seven days.

16 At the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me:
17Mortal, I have made you a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.
18If I say to the wicked, You shall surely die, and you give them no warning, and do not speak to warn the wicked from their wicked way, in order to save their life, those wicked persons shall die for their iniquity; but their blood I will require at your hand.
19But if you warn the wicked, and they do not turn from their wickedness, or from their wicked way, they shall die for their iniquity; but you will have saved your life.
20Again, if the righteous turn from their righteousness and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block before them, they shall die; because you have not warned them, they shall die for their sin, and their righteous deeds that they have done shall not be remembered; but their blood I will require at your hand.
21If, however, you warn the righteous not to sin, and they do not sin, they shall surely live, because they took warning; and you will have saved your life.

Ezekiel Isolated and Silenced

22 Then the hand of the Lord was upon me there; and he said to me, Rise up, go out into the valley, and there I will speak with you.
23So I rose up and went out into the valley; and the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory that I had seen by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face.
24The spirit entered into me, and set me on my feet; and he spoke with me and said to me: Go, shut yourself inside your house.
25As for you, mortal, cords shall be placed on you, and you shall be bound with them, so that you cannot go out among the people;
26and I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be speechless and unable to reprove them; for they are a rebellious house.
27But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord God; let those who will hear, hear; and let those who refuse to hear, refuse; for they are a rebellious house.

The Siege of Jerusalem Portrayed

4And you, O mortal, take a brick and set it before you. On it portray a city, Jerusalem;
2and put siege-works against it, and build a siege-wall against it, and cast up a ramp against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering-rams against it all round.
3Then take an iron plate and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; set your face towards it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.

4 Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it; you shall bear their punishment for the number of the days that you lie there.
5For I assign to you a number of days, three hundred and ninety days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment; and so you shall bear the punishment of the house of Israel.
6When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah; forty days I assign you, one day for each year.
7You shall set your face towards the siege of Jerusalem, and with your arm bared you shall prophesy against it.
8See, I am putting cords on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

9 And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them into one vessel, and make bread for yourself. During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it.
10The food that you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; at fixed times you shall eat it.
11And you shall drink water by measure, one-sixth of a hin; at fixed times you shall drink.
12You shall eat it as a barley-cake, baking it in their sight on human dung.
13The Lord said, Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread, unclean, among the nations to which I will drive them.
14Then I said, Ah Lord God! I have never defiled myself; from my youth up until now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by animals, nor has carrion flesh come into my mouth.
15Then he said to me, See, I will let you have cows dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.

16 Then he said to me, Mortal, I am going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem; they shall eat bread by weight and with fearfulness; and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay.
17Lacking bread and water, they will look at one another in dismay, and waste away under their punishment.

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Psalm 71

Prayer for Lifelong Protection and Help

1 In you, O Lord, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame.
2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me.
3 Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress,* to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.

4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.
5 For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
6 Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mothers womb.My praise is continually of you.

7 I have been like a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all day long.
9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength is spent.
10 For my enemies speak concerning me, and those who watch for my life consult together.
11 They say, Pursue and seize that person whom God has forsaken, for there is no one to deliver.

12 O God, do not be far from me; O my God, make haste to help me!
13 Let my accusers be put to shame and consumed; let those who seek to hurt me be covered with scorn and disgrace.
14 But I will hope continually, and will praise you yet more and more.
15 My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all day long, though their number is past my knowledge.
16 I will come praising the mighty deeds of the Lord God, I will praise your righteousness, yours alone.

17 O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
18 So even to old age and grey hairs, O God, do not forsake me,until I proclaim your might to all the generations to come.*Your power
19and your righteousness, O God, reach the high heavens.

You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?
20 You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again;from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.
21 You will increase my honour, and comfort me once again.

22 I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God;I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have rescued.
24 All day long my tongue will talk of your righteous help,for those who tried to do me harm have been put to shame, and disgraced.

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I John 1

THE FIRST LETTER OF

John

The Word of Life

1We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life
2this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us
3we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
4We are writing these things so that our* joy may be complete.

God Is Light

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.
6If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true;
7but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.